Assign command with Leisure Suit Larry

[adalsgaard]

I have a problem with the assign command.
I'm using WinUAE 1.5.0, Amiga 500 (Kickstart 1.3) with a directory hard drive (Workbench 1.3 installed).

Now... I want to install Leisure Suit Larry. The problem is that the computer asks for the disk at startup from the hard drive.

I've used CLI til copy Leisure Suit Larry to my hard drive ("copy DF0: DH0:Larry1 all"). Now I want to use the assign command to make the game look for data on the hard drive, NOT the disk. For some reason, the assign command can't go through with the task.

Can someone please tell me, step by step, how to install this game to a hard drive? (commands, in which files etc.)

(Please, no WHDLoad suggestions. I want to do this the old fashioned way).

[TCD]

I can't remember how I did it, but have a look in the zone

[adalsgaard]

Thanks, TheCyberDruid.

I'm still interested in a thorough description of how to use the assign command correctly as I want to install other "Sierra oldies" and other AmigaDOS games.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by adalsgaard

I'm still interested in a thorough description of how to use the assign command correctly as I want to install other "Sierra oldies" and other AmigaDOS games.

Assign works like this:

assign volumename: directoryname

Example: Suppose you have a directory called game in HD2:work/ and the game disk this directory represents is called GameDisk. The assign command now becomes assign GameDisk: hd2:work/game. Just make sure you leave out the dots, they just mark the end of the lines in this text as normal.

This should work for each time the game installer asks for some volumename: in any drive. So again: If the game installer asks for volumename BLA: and the install data is located in directory HD2:foo/bar then the assign command becomes assign BLA: hd2:foo/bar.

[TCD]

IIRC most of the Sierra games bring their own installers, so they shouldn't be much of a problem. When you copy the files for other games over to your HD, just try to start it. If it comes up with a 'Please insert volume' (don't remember it exactly) request, it's a game that you can get to run with adding assigns most of the time. Look up the names for the disks and then make an AmigaDOS batch/script (a simple textfile) where you assign them to the folder of your HD where you copied the files to.
For example let's say the disks are called 'MHNY1' & 'MHNY2' and the executable 'manhunt', the batch file would look like this :

assign MHNY1: ""
assign MHNY1: ""
manhunt

"" stands for the current folder, so that batch file has to be in the game folder. You can of course also use a full path like 'DH1:Games/Sierra/ManhuntNY'. You would then just run the batch file either from CLI with execute or make an icon and start the script with IconX. Hope that helps

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

IIRC most of the Sierra games bring their own installers, so they shouldn't be much of a problem.

Have you ever tried to install Amiga Sierra games with the provided hd installers? They are pure crap.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Have you ever tried to install Amiga Sierra games with the provided hd installers? They are pure crap.

I really wish I could remember if I had that much of a problem with them now I've installed pretty much all Sierra adventures and I can't remember that is was a big problem (conpared to some other nasty games that is )

[Retro-Nerd]

Then you are a lucky guy. I had tons of problems. Some of them doesn't seem to work at all on my real Amiga. God bless the WHDLoad patches.

[TCD]

Guess I am then Since he uses pretty much the same setup that I had when installing them, we'll see which problems occur.

[rockersuke]

Perhaps adalsgaard was using ASSIGN correctly. I remember Larry 1 uses its floopy disk as an anti-copy key, so It requires It to be present at df0: even if the game is correctly installed and the program uses the data from the hard drive.

So a cracked copy is needed if you want to play without worrying about the annoying floppy disk.

Then again, I'm talking about good old "type the commands" version and maybe he means the modern "point & click" remake.

--

[Kitty]

Slightly off topic but I'm sure you can answer this quick TCD

That leisure suit larry you upped to the zone, I tried it and it crashed straight away! I had JIT off too, is there any special settings it needs to run?

[TCD]

Easy one : Not tested with anything not A500 Use the WHDLoad version and don't bother with this one

[Kitty]

okey dokey, gotta love the music in Leisure Suit Larry

[adalsgaard]

I've tried several things to get the assign command to work. Suspecting that I'm doing something wrong, I've also tried a lot of other games and regardless of which game I try to assign to my HD, CLI states:

Can't cancel <disk name here>

So apparently it has nothing to do copy protection. It's really frustrating!

Here's what I do:

1) I boot from the main HD (DH0 (using Workbench 1.3)
2) I insert the Larry game disk (disk name LSL)
3) I open the Shell command prompt.
4) I type Copy DF0: Sierra:Larry1/ all (Sierra is device DH1
5) After copying the files to the Larry1 directory, I go to the Larry1 folder on Sierra: (DH1
6) In directory Sierra:Larry1 I type Assign LSL: Sierra:Larry1/
7) The command prompt returns the message Can't cancel LSL

Like I stated earlier, I've done this with other games and they all end up with the same statement Can't cancel <disk name here>

I must be doing something wrong as i sincerely doubt that ANY game will reject the assign command... Hopefully one of you can spot it

[TCD]

Eject the disk before you make the assign. Because the disk is still in the drive you can't have the same name again.

[adalsgaard]

Thanks, TheCyberDruid.

I thought I tried that already, but the "Can't cancel"-message is gone. Instead I encounter another serious problem (with Larry and any other game I've tried: Software error - task held. Finish ALL disk activity. Select CANCEL to reset/debug.

Something must be wrong with the way I setup WinUAE?

[TCD]

You probably need more RAM. Try increasing both chip and slow/fast mem.

[adalsgaard]

Apparently, the amount of RAM is not to blame.

My settings are:
CPU: 68000
Chipset: OCS
Memory settings: Chip=2 MB, Slow=1 MB, Fast=8 MB
Hard drives: Main (DH0:, bootable), Sierra (DH1:, not bootable)

Something to blame here?

[adalsgaard]

After the software error message I get the Guru Meditation #00000003.00215C10

After a little research, I've found out that a) the error is a CPU error and b) the number 3 (in front of the dot) determines that it's an adress error.

On Wikipedia it is stated that quote: "Only highly technically adept Amiga users would know, for example, that exception 3 was an address error, and meant the program was accessing a word on an unaligned boundary."

Does anyone know how to deal with that?

[TCD]

Just checked again with my WB 1.3, KS 1.3, 2 MB Chip, 2 MB Fast config and it runs fine. I get the same error when I try a 512/512 chip/slow mem config. If you want to, I'll upload my config, so you can check if that works then.